The opening shot of "Fidelio: Alice's Journey" has lead actress Ariane Labed skinny-dipping. Get used to it; it's far from the last time you'll see her naked form in this French film. Indeed, for a production with only one major female role as against several male roles, it is noticeable that there is much, much more female nudity than male.

Alice (Labed) is an engineer who, upon getting a job aboard the freighter 'Fidelio', is dismayed to discover its captain Gaël (Melvil Poupaud) is an old flame. This might make the view expect a bit of a relationship pot-boiler, but actually the "will-they-won't-they" business is dealt with pretty quickly. The film also resists the temptation to descend into tiresome "woman in a man's world who has to prove herself to the boorish men" territory; Alice is accepted into the Fidelio's crew with little comment about her gender and - a half-hearted attempt at molestation aside - it's of little direct importance to the storyline. Instead the film follows the day-to-day goings-on of Alice's life on board: there is a bit of business with a dead crewman's diary, but on the whole the film is an interesting character study of a flawed but likable central character.

As for the acting, Greek-born Labed brings a traditional French gamine quality to the central role, well-served by a wardrobe that allows Alice to be understatedly feminine as well as one of the boys. As Gaël, Poupaud is merely there: the role doesn't offer him much in which to sink his teeth, but I've never found him the most expressive of actors anyway. Anders Danielsen Lie, as Alice's artist boyfriend, could perhaps have made more of his role: instead he comes across as dull, boring and slightly bewildered, leading the viewer to understand just why Alice wants to spend most of her time at sea...

Lucie Borleteau's first feature-length movie is a strange one. It has an interesting premise (few are the movies that revolve around a woman... working as an engineer on a freighter) but its development is - to say the least - surprising. You might expect a documentary on the theme : 'the everyday life and working conditions of a female worker on a merchant ship' or a sociological study dealing with the point 'how does an insert element manage to fit into an a priori unfriendly universe?' And - to be fair - there are elements of the response to both questions. On the documentary side, the cargo ship Fidélio on which most scenes take place is a real one and it shows. As a consequence everything rings true, from the sorry state of the antiquated freighter to the engine room operations to the superstitious Filipino crew members, to the wild sprees ashore. As for the study of what it is like to be a woman in a male-dominated environment, the result is only fairly convincing : this is probably due to the fact that Alice is seen in too many scenes in which she thinks of love, yearns for sex or actually makes love and in not enough where she carries out her engineer's job. And when she IS doing so, she appears too beautiful, too well-groomed and her hands are just about greasy enough. Of course it is Lucie Borleteau's choice to show that a woman, whether working in an engine room or not, will be a woman (which I perfectly understand),but it seems to me her film would have been better if she had found a more adapted balance between the intimate and the documentary sequences. On the whole, though, "Fidelio, l'odyssée d'Alice" remains quite a watchable film. First of all because it may be the first (or if is not, one of the first) fiction movies on its theme - and this is no small thing. In addition, even if more could have been shown about Alice's trade, the relationships between the various member of the crew are well observed and well captured in this aptly-made drama. Another asset of 'Fidélio' is its fine cast consisting either of professionals (in particular the classy Ariane Labed as Alice the free woman and the sensitive Anders Danielsen Lie as Felix, the young lover she has left behind) or of real-life seamen who play themselves in a very realistic way. All in all, a voyage you can embark on provided you don't mind a significant part of its running time being devoted to its main character's sentimental pangs or graphic lovemaking.

Alice (Ariane Labed 'The Lobster') is an engineer on a cargo ship. She has a handsome and doting boyfriend who is Norwegian – Felix (Andres Danielsen Lie 'Oslo 31 August') and after returning from a voyage she hops into 'the sack' with him before going off to replace a dead engineer on the 'Fedelio'. Only this is a ship which has been renamed and is actually the ship she apprenticed on, and worse still the sultry captain with matinée idol good looks who was her first love is now her boss and married.

Well soon they are all at sea – in more ways than one and she reveals that as a woman 'she has needs' and knows how to fulfil them. So begins her 'odyssey'. She also indulges in the belongings of the dead engineer piecing together his wayfaring life through diary entries and pictures. However what this really develops into is a voyage of self discovery.

Now this has a lot of bedroom gymnastics in it and to put it mildly she 'arrives' faster than an Uber cab. Now I am all fine with that sort of thing but the story – like the journey – meanders in places and at times it is hard to know why a scene was included. That too is fine as the relevance of all reveals itself in the final denouement. All in all a very accomplished film but not one that is an entry to French films but more for those who really like a bit of Gallic difference.